Girls basketball tourney pairings revealed

Realignment may have separated Johnson County’s four Class 4A girls basketball teams into two different sectionals, but it couldn’t keep rivals apart for long.

Sent out to the Bloomington South Sectional, Center Grove and Greenwood drew one another as first-round opponents. That game will end up being the second meeting between the two schools in just over a week — the Trojans and Woodmen face off in a regular-season battle this Tuesday night.

Meanwhile, over in the Shelbyville Sectional, Franklin faces a potential semifinal game against Whiteland. The Grizzly Cubs, last year’s state runner-ups in 4A, has a first-round matchup with Columbus North; if they can beat the Bulldogs for the second time this season (they posted a 65-28 home win on Nov. 5), they’ll take on the Warriors, who drew a first-round bye. Franklin won at Whiteland on Saturday, 51-32.

The two aforementioned sectionals will both funnel into a Class 4A regional at Bedford North Lawrence, leaving open the possibility of yet another county-on-county showdown later in the tournament.

Two-time defending sectional champion Indian Creek, ranked fourth in Class 3A, begins play at the Owen Valley Sectional against the host Patriots, a team the Braves beat 76-47 in early December. The winner moves on to a semifinal game against the West Vigo-Edgewood winner. Indian Creek is 5-0 against the seven-team field, which features six Western Indiana Conference teams (Northview and Brown County are in the upper half of the bracket).

In the Class A sectional at Eminence, Greenwood Christian opens up with a first-round game against Tindley; the winner earns a semifinal date against Central Christian. The Cougars have won four straight sectional championships, defeating the Tigers on the way to three of those.

Also in Class A, Edinburgh drew an opening-round game against Morristown at the Southwestern Sectional. The Yellow Jackets defeated the Lancers, 37-16, earlier this month. The winner of the rematch faces Oldenburg Academy or South Decatur in the semifinal round.

Both of those sectionals funnel into the same regional, which will also be played at Southwestern.